


please watch your step

by ohmygodwhy



Series: sweet pea's crush on fangs (and other stories) [4]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Families of Choice, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, M/M, Pining, confusing teen feelings, post-2x10, ppl catching feelings all over the place, this is such a niche fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-17
Updated: 2018-02-17
Packaged: 2019-03-19 07:00:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13699290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohmygodwhy/pseuds/ohmygodwhy
Summary: “We think Kevin has a Serpent kink,” Jones adds helpfully, because he’s an asshole.Fangs just shrugs. “He might.”“Weird,” Jones says, turning back to his homework.(alternate title: the schools merge.)





	please watch your step

**Author's Note:**

> this is basically a bunch of little drafts for a longer 'the schools merge and ppl catch feelings' fic that will probably never become a reality, but i wanted to post them in a way that kind of makes sense anyway before i forget about them forever
> 
> also, i haven't watched anything past i think 2x11 (the one after the january premiere?) bc i heard my kids have been mysteriously absent and also that archie joined the mafia??? wild

 

i.

Jones gets the shit kicked out of him again a few days later—like, actually does, this time—after he gets suspended and then unsuspended. Bulldogs instead of Ghoulies, because he apparently loves getting the shit kicked out of him that much. 

“You must love getting the shit kicked out of you,” Sweet Pea tells him, leaning against the bathroom door to keep it shut while Jones tries to stop his nose from bleeding and ruining his stupid uniform shirt. 

“Fuck you,” Jones says, but his mouth is muffled by the paper towel he’s holding against his nose, so it mostly falls flat. “I wasn’t wearing my jacket or anything.” 

Sweet Pea scowls, “You want me to kick their asses?” he asks, because he would do it for Fangs and Toni and he’s already done it for Jones with the Ghoulies who kicked the shit out of him that one time. That Mantle asshole doesn’t seem so tough compared to them. Sweet Pea’s pretty sure he could take him. 

Jones shakes his head, though, “You wanna get suspended?”

“They should get suspended.” 

“They won’t if you pick a fight.”

“They hit first,” and then, “Is your nose broken?”

“No. You wanna talk to Weatherbee about it?” his voice is heavy with sarcasm, even through the paper towel. 

“Get that Andrews kid to do it, then.” 

“To tell Weatherbee or to kick their asses?”

“I’d say both, but that Andrews kid kicks like a bitch.”

Jones tosses the bloody wad of wet paper towel at him. Sweet Pea makes a face and tosses it in the trash. 

“I don’t wanna get Archie into any shit with any of them,” he says. 

“Isn’t he like your best fucking friend?” Sweet Pea asks. Kicking someone’s ass for your best friend is like, in the best friend rulebook. It’s just what you do. 

“Yeah,” Jones shrugs, dabbing at the blood on his collar, “And I don’t wanna get him mixed up in anything he doesn’t have to.”

“That’s stupid,” Sweet Pea says. Watches Jones try to stop the stupid uniform from staining for a few more moments. Honestly, he thinks, how were the teachers not expecting them to get their asses beat when they’re basically taping a Southside sticker to their backs? At least when they wore their jackets they got to choose what the sign said. “Also, that’s not coming out with water.” 

“I know,” Jones sighs. 

The bell rings. 

When the teacher asks Jones what he did to his shirt, Jones smiles and says, “Sorry, a football player punched me, and blood’s harder to clean out than you’d think.”

Sweet Pea bursts out laughing. They both get detention after school. 

  
  
ii.

It’s none of his business, really. He wasn’t even supposed to be in the locker room. He’s not a football player, and he’s definitely not a bulldog, and he didn’t even want to be looking for Andrews but Jones had annoyed him into giving him back the lit book Jones had taken and given to Sweet Pea because Sweet Pea didn’t have a copy, cause he said it’d be good for him to be nice and learn to  _ show some gratitude,  _ but mostly because Jones is a lazy asshole who didn’t wanna lend his own book out. 

Point is, he didn’t mean to walk in on… whatever it is he walked in on. 

He just—he didn’t even know Fangs  _ liked _ boys, is the thing! Especially not soft pretty preppy ones who were related to the sheriff— the guy who locked he and Toni in a cell overnight like, a month ago!

He wonders vaguely, on his hurry down the hall, if the sheriff’s kid has a thing for Serpents or something. Which would be weird and potentially dangerous for them if Keller ever found out and decided to have them all arrested for defiling his precious little goody-two-shoes son.

He complains about it loudly later, because he can’t complain quietly, and Jones glances up from his homework. “Kevin has a Serpent kink?” He asks, eyebrows raised. “That’s weird.” 

“Mister Goody-Two-Shoes likes to live on the edge, huh?” Toni asks. 

“He won’t be the one getting in trouble,” Sweet Pea says, and when they look at him like they can’t believe he’s being the voice of reason here, “What if he’s just like, a rebound for Joaquin or something? Talk to that Keller kid about it.”

Jones blinks, furrows his eyebrows a little bit, “Why would I talk to Kevin about his love life? I don’t wanna know about it. It’s none of my business.”

“It’s kinda your business.” 

“We’re not super close; it’d be weird.”

“You won’t talk to Andrews, you won’t talk to Keller—do you actually have friends outside of us, or were you making that up?” 

Jones scowls, shoulders drawing up tight, “Talk to Fangs yourself if you’re so worried about it."

“Talk to me about what?” Fangs asks. Sweet Pea swivels around in sync with the other two, both of their heads tilted up. It’s like something out of a goddamn sitcom.

“Your locker room make-out with Keller’s kid,” Toni says. 

“We think Kevin has a Serpent kink,” Jones adds helpfully, because he’s an asshole. 

Fangs just shrugs. “He might.”

“Weird,” Jones says, turning back to his homework.

“Is he a good kisser?” Toni asks, scooting over to let Fangs sit down. 

“He’s…above average.”

“He good at anything else?”

“Alright, I’m tapping outta this conversation,” Jones says when Fangs grins and opens his mouth. He gathers his shit and throws his backpack over his shoulders. “I gotta meet Archie at the library, anyways.”

“See you,” Fangs says, and Toni gives a half hearted salute. 

“Try not to gossip too much,” he tosses over his shoulder, hitting Sweet Pea on the arm as he leaves. 

Sweet Pea’s not super interested in hearing about the other things Keller’s kid is above average in, but he sits down in the empty spot Jones left anyways. Fangs looks happy, even if it leaves a sour taste in his mouth to think about  _ why,  _ but if he doesn’t think about it too hard—which he doesn’t—it’s fine. Plus, it’s not like he’s gonna go  _ meet Archie at the library,  _ too.

 

iii.

Riverdale High has a huge indoor cafeteria _ and _ a whole ass outdoor field with big trees and picnic tables and shit. Sweet Pea would try to be bitter if he wasn’t too busy enjoying the hell out of it. The grass is  _ green _ . He can sit under a  _ tree. _

It’s kinda ridiculous, though, the divide you can see between the two schools, even though they’re technically ‘one’, now. Northside kids sit on one side of the room and/or field, and South sits on the other. The Serpents claim a few tables on the far side near a few trees three days in, and no one else tries to sit there again. Jones sits with them, obviously, and that Andrews kid acts all hurt that he wouldn’t wanna sit with him and the people who either a) beat the shit out of him, or b) condoned it. 

The kid sits with them sometimes as some kind of compromise—sits with Jones, mostly—and is literally the only one who makes it uncomfortable, sitting all stiff like Sweet Pea’s gonna pull his knife on him or steal his food — like Jones hasn’t eaten all of his stupid fries by now. He’s not even being subtle about it, either. Andrews is basically just letting him take the best thing on his tray.

It’s not his business, though, so Sweet Pea doesn’t point it out. He doesn’t give a shit where Andrews sits, as long as he doesn't bring his bulldog friends along with him or sit like, directly in his line of sight or anything. Toni gets a kick out of it, anyways, so it’s whatever.

That scary redhead Blossom girl follows her over one day, sits on the edge of the bench with her legs crossed and her head tilted so that her hair falls over her shoulder all pretty and wavy. Sweet Pea’s not poetic, but he’s pretty sure she’s showing off, the way she did back at the drag race that she apparently forgot about when she called them all delinquents, but Toni’s eating that shit up like she’s been living in a desert for the past year and the Blossom girl’s the only source of water in the whole fuckin’ world. 

Thirsty bitch, he doesn’t say, but he catches her eye and she smacks the back of his head anyways. The girl says a lot of shit he doesn’t understand but Toni does, ‘cause Toni’s smart, and then stands and throws her hair over her shoulder and walks off like she’s on a goddamn runway. 

“I can’t tell if she’s confident or just has a stick up her ass.” he says while Toni watches her leave. 

He turns to Jones, cause he’s the one who went to school with her, but Jones just shrugs, “It’s Cheryl. That’s just how she is.”

Which isn’t a fucking answer, actually, but whatever. He throws Fangs’ school-provided cardigan over his face and goes back to sleep. 

  
  
iv.

So Toni has a big gay crush on the scary Blossom girl who shit-talked all of them to their faces their first day. Which would be cause for concern, if Toni didn’t refuse to take shit from anyone, and the Blossom girl— _ Cheryl _ , he hears, Toni rubbing down glasses at the bar after school and talking about her in a way that Sweet Pea isn’t sure whether it’s trash talking or praising—didn’t have a big gay crush back. 

So he sees more of her by default, since she sees more of Toni. She’s still a bitch, but not as bad when she’s around Toni. Like, a softer, more fragile bitch, who looks all proud of herself when she makes her laugh, like she’s the best person in the room just for that. Which is stupid, because they make Toni laugh infinitely more times than Blossom ever does, but whatever. Toni’s happy, so he’ll let her have this one. Hell, she even asks Sweet Pea to hold her earrings and heels one day while she goes and yells at Lodge about whatever it is they’re fighting about now. She doesn’t deck her like he told her to, but it comes close. 

He feels off and uncomfortable hanging around the sheriff’s kid, though. He thinks Fangs and Keller should feel it too, considering how many times the guy’s dad has jerked them around or kept them in holding cells overnight for no fucking reason. He’s sure the kid’s talked shit about them before, too. He wonders if he talks shit about Fangs behind his back. 

Jones says  _ he’s not that kinda guy probably, I don’t know _ , which doesn’t fucking reassure him very much, but Fangs says it, too, which is only slightly better, because Fangs has a stupid, gross crush even though he pretends like he doesn’t. Motherfucker caught feelings. Sweet Pea tries not to think about it too hard. 

Because all of his friends are suddenly in love with Northsiders, he’s spends an inadvertently large amount of time with Jones. Who is also probably still in love with a Northsider or two, but at least he’s not trailing after one or stupidly defending them anymore. Andrews is with that Lodge girl that Cheryl almost fought in the middle of the school hallway, so he probably has enough to deal with. 

Jones isn’t  _ bad  _ company, even if he’s kind of annoying sometimes and spends too much time on his laptop. He listens to Sweet Pea bitch about whatever’s bothering him until he’s had enough and says  _ are you gonna complain all day or are you gonna do your stupid calc homework? cause I’m not doing it for you,  _ or something dumb that’ll get him mad enough that he forgets whatever it was he was mad about before. Also, he’s kinda funny when he’s not being pretentious or distrusting, which is a win.

So they’re in the music room one day at lunch, in the back near the windows where Jones apparently used to take naps when he and Andrews had their big summer breakup and weren’t talking to each other. 

Sweet Pea is complaining about that very man himself, and his stupid hair that looks like it was dyed and how he’s on the football team but never tells them to cut their bully shit out. Jones is rolling his eyes, and Sweet Pea’s getting annoyed with him rolling his eyes, and when he gets mad he gets into people's space, crowds right into them to get them to stop whatever they’re doing and listen. 

So Sweet Pea gets all close and says listen, you asshole, and then kind of stops short because he can see the flecks of gold in Jones’ eyes from right here, and the moles on his neck and everything. His hair, what he can see of it, actually looks like it was washed today, and he can feel Jones holding his breath. 

The light is low, because the curtains are drawn, and there’s no one around, and Jones is just looking at him like he’s waiting for something to happen, and there’s this charged feeling in the air, or maybe it’s just under his skin, all pent up and buzzing, so Sweet Pea does the most obvious thing to do in this situation: he kisses him.    
  
Jones doesn’t react at first, just makes this high, confused sound. Sweet Pea gets a hand in his hair under that stupid hat and Jones’ hands shoot to his shoulders, gripping tight. He tries to jerk back, maybe, but Sweet Pea doesn’t let him, pushes closer, like if he can just get close enough everything will stop being so confusing.    
  
Eventually, he has to pull back to breathe. He feels his heart racing, can feel Jones panting against him. His eyes are blown wide and still kind of confused, like he doesn’t know what just happened. Sweet Pea moves to kiss him again, just to drive the point home, but Jones stops him with a hand on his chest.    
  
“Listen,” he says, his voice all breathy in a way that makes Sweet Pea’s heart do this weird flutter, “this is flattering and all, but I don’t really want you to use me to like, figure yourself out.”    
  
Sweet Pea blinks, “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”    
  
“It means you’re not really all that into me,” he sounds more amused than upset.   
  
“You don’t know what I’m into.” He snaps.    
  
“I know you don’t stare at me like I’m the fucking sun, and I know I don’t have a razor sharp jawline.”   
  
“So what?” Sweet Pea shoots back, defensive and kind of pissed off because this isn’t how kissing is supposed to go, “I thought your crazy Northside boyfriend was dating that rich girl.”    
  
“Archie’s not my boyfriend.” He says, like a reflex. “And he is.”   
  
“Then what’s the problem?”   
  
“I’m not the one you wanna kiss.” Jones says, like if he enunciates enough it’ll finally make sense.    
  
“Yeah you are.” Sweet Pea insists.    
  
“Okay, maybe I am,” Jones relents. “But I’m not the one you wanna get with. There’s a big difference. I’m not super into being a tool for your bi-curious exploration.    
  
“I’m not—I mean, I’m not _exploring,”_   
  
“I know. Which would kinda make this worse? Like. I don’t wanna be plan B.”    
  
“I don’t,” Sweet Pea says, suddenly floundering, “Hold up, I didn’t mean to—“    
  
“It’s cool, Sweet Pea, it’s fine.” Jones says, squeezing his shoulder to calm him down. Or keep him focused, at least. Something. Sweet Pea appreciates the effort, stilted as it is.    
  
“For real?” He asks, like he isn’t being flat out turned down right now. He feels like he should maybe feel more upset about it, because he does like watching Jones’ hands on the keyboard and how long his eyelashes are and how he still got up after Sweet Pea nearly broke his nose. It’s not like he planned to kiss him right now.   
  
“For real.”   
  
“Please don’t tell anyone,” he starts.    
  
“I won’t,” Jones interrupts, like he’s offended Sweet Pea would even say that, “that’s such a shitty thing to do.”   
  
“Thanks.” Sweet Pea says. Opens his mouth to maybe say sorry for whatever it is that just happened; stops himself. “Thanks.”    
  
“Sure.”   
  
A long pause. Someone slams a locker in the hallway hard enough to echo.    
  
“Hey, uh,” Sweet Pea licks his lips, and he doesn’t wanna sound like an asshole but he really wants to know, for future reference, even though there’s no way he could be anything but amazing at it, “Do I kiss good?”    
  
Jones snorts, which isn’t a good sign, “I mean, I guess? I’m not super well-versed in the art, don’t think I ever will be.”    
  
“What d’you mean?”    
  
“Sexuality’s a spectrum, look it up sometime.” He says, all mysterious and over dramatic. The amount of times Toni’s said those exact words. Sweet Pea hasn’t looked it up, mostly out of spite, but also because he’s afraid of what he would find.    
  
“Hey, Jones.” He says, when Jones’ hand is on the doorknob, “Jug. I’m sorry, for real. You don’t deserve to be a plan B, or whatever.”    
  
“Thanks.” He says, and he sounds like he means it. “For the record, I think you should tell him.”    
  
“No fucking way.”    
  
Jones just shrugs, “It’s your call. Just think about it.”    
  
He shuts the door quietly behind him. Sweet Pea stands in the quiet for a solid five minutes, thinking about how Jones felt warm and solid and soft underneath him, and how Fangs would probably take up more space.    
  
Fuck his life for real, he thinks. What the fuck.    
  
The bell rings, he doesn’t have music till fifth period, and the classroom he needs to be in is all the way across the fucking school. 

His life is very hard.

 

**Author's Note:**

> shrug emoji
> 
> comment to help me with this essay i have to write next week


End file.
